Child Abuse Deaths Studied

January 12, 2002|By Nicole Sterghos Brochu Staff Writer

One child, at nine months old, was grabbed by his father by the throat and slammed head first into the asphalt pavement. Another was shaken to death by her frustrated mother before her first birthday. Two others were stabbed in the head by a father with a known propensity for violence. Seven were shot to death. Fourteen drowned.

However grisly their death, all of these Florida children -- and 35 others -- died at the hands of their parents or other caretakers in 1999 and 2000, and all were known to the state child protection system. Worse yet, the vast majority of them could have been saved, a state panel has concluded in a report that will be sent to the governor Monday.

The report, the second put out by the Florida Child Abuse Death Review Team since its 1999 inception, specifically studied children who unquestionably died of abuse and neglect in 1999 or 2000 and who had been the subject of at least one abuse or neglect report.

Of those 60 deaths -- 30 in each year -- the death review team found that 80 percent could have been prevented, whether by the state agencies involved in the children's lives, their caretakers, their family members or anyone else who may have known they were in harm's way. Eight other deaths possibly could have been prevented, according to the report.

It was a conclusion that child welfare advocate Jack Levine found "astonishing."

"What that says to me is while the state of Florida has perfected the art of postmortem -- we're very, very good at finding out why children have been delivered to the morgue -- I struggle to understand why we're not just as good at the art of prevention," said Levine, president of Center for Florida's Children, a statewide advocacy group.

But Dr. Michael Bell, chairman of the review team and deputy chief medical examiner in Broward County, said the preventable-death findings should not be surprising, given that all the victims studied in the report had been known to the system.

"When you look at these cases, it's sad when there was an opportunity for someone in the community ... to step up and say, `Something's the matter here,'" Bell said.

Officials with the state Department of Children & Families, the agency responsible for protecting abused and neglected children, told the review team that they were troubled the report did not explain how the deaths were preventable.

"We were concerned that the report didn't go far enough," said Cecka Green, spokeswoman for Children & Families. "It said the deaths were preventable, but it didn't say how, so it really doesn't help us as a department, or anyone who helps children, determine how the deaths could have been prevented."

Bell said that will be an issue the team takes up in future meetings.

The report did provide some details in other perceived shortcomings. Specifically, the review team found inadequacies in Children & Families services provided to the victims in 10 of the 60 cases. Problems included referrals for inappropriate or inadequate services, lack of follow-up, and a lack of updated operating procedures that hampered the review team's ability to gauge the department's effectiveness in 18 other deaths.

In 20 cases, or 42 percent, the review team found Children & Families services to be adequate.

Pam Dunston, a Palm Beach County lawyer and child advocate, said the report's findings mirror the deficiencies illuminated by the July death of 9-year-old Michael Bernard, a suburban West Palm Beach boy who suffocated in his bed. The boy, who suffered from cerebral palsy, seizures and an array of other ailments that prevented him from even turning over in his bed without help, had been the subject of a half-dozen child abuse investigations and monthly visits by disabilities counselors.

In many instances, the various agencies involved in Michael's life did not coordinate with one another or share investigative files. Dunston called that a common problem at Children & Families, which she said also suffers from a high turnover rate in case workers and investigator positions often filled by passionate but less educated and less experienced workers.

Palm Beach and Broward counties have played host to numerous grand jury investigations into high-profile child deaths. The two most recent inquiries produced scathing reports about Children & Families' inability to protect children already under its watch.

"That appears to be a problem with DCF in terms of coordination and putting together a picture of the whole child," Dunston said.

But like Levine, Dunston was reluctant to second guess Children & Families case workers, who have to strike a difficult balance between keeping families together and keeping children from harm.